Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated that after he would “get them back where they are,” he wants to “expedite” the legal immigration process for the “good” illegal immigrants in the US “of which there are many” after and that “I want people to come into the country,” provided they do so legally on Monday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel.
Trump said that he doesn’t want to run as an Independent, and that his “preference” is to run as a Republican, and predicted he would win the Republican nomination. And that a third party run would be “very difficult” and isn’t what he wanted. He also said that the RNC has treated him well, and he wasn’t looking to run third party, which he wouldn’t do if he was given a “fair shot.”
Later, Trump, after stating that he would build a border fence and make Mexico pay for it, said, [relevant remarks being around 11:20] “before we even start the wall, I’d get rid of the bad ones. Because we have a lot of really bad apples. We have a lot of bad dudes that are causing tremendous problems. I mean, you see what’s happened. You know, I’ve been totally exonerated, if you look at what people have said, how they respect — I brought up this issue. I took a lot of heat. And now all of a sudden they’re saying what Trump did was right. And I actually had people in your profession apologize to me for the statements they’ve made that first week because I was right. And I’m very proud of bringing up illegal immigration. I took a lot of — it was not easy to do, and I’m very proud of it. I would get rid of the bad ones. The criminals, we have a a lot of people that shouldn’t be here. And I don’t want to house them in our jails, because it’s costing us a fortune. I want them to go back to the country they came from, not only Mexico, plenty of other countries. They’re pouring across the border.”
He added, “number two, you either — and these could be some great people. But you either have laws or you don’t have laws. I would get them back. I would get them back where they are, and I would try and work out a process where they can come in legally. But they’ve got — they have to come in legally, Sean. It’s about laws. It’s about borders. If we don’t have a border, we don’t have a country. So, I’d get them out. And if they were really outstanding — because some of these people have been here for a long period of time. I’d let them back legally, they have to come through a legal system, and I’d make that system much faster, much greater. I want people to come into the country. I love the fact that people come into the country. They have to come in legally. Not only them, other people. We welcome people. I mean, my parents and my grandparents, they came from different parts of the world, too. We all sort of did.”
He continued, “I would expedite it [the process[ because some of these people are fantastic people. I’ve been to the border. I was there a few days ago. I met some people. These are fantastic people, and they have great reputations within their community. So, what I’d do is I’d expedite it. But, you have to have laws. If you don’t have laws, you don’t have a country. I would get them out and try and — the good ones. And the bad ones, they’re gone. They never come back. They’ll never get back into this country. But, the good ones, of which there are many, I want to expedite it so they can come back in legally.”
Earlier, Trump said President Obama is “very divisive” and probably the country’s worst president, and should have devoted more time to negotiating a good Iran deal than criticizing Republicans.
Trump also criticized fellow Republican candidate Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, arguing Wisconsin’s jobs, schools, and roads are a “disaster” and stated that Walker had run up a massive budget deficit, and criticized Walker for being “divisive.”
Trump also accused other Republicans of not attacking Hillary Clinton hard enough, and stated that what she did with her emails is “criminal” and far worse than what Gen. David Petraeus did. He added that Petraeus would have gone to prison for ten years if he did what Clinton did.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.